While voting continues in the race for Cook, editor Lyndon Keane says there was no room on the ballot paper for negative, dirty politics, despite concerted muckraking efforts by a number of the candidates in the final weeks of the election campaign. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
As the dust begins to settle and voting continues in what is now a two-way battle for Cook, it’s clear there will be, as there are in all political stoushes, winners and losers.
The Liberal National Party will form a majority government and end nine years of Labor reign, with former MP David Kempton looking like making a return to Parliament after being ousted by the late Billy Gordon in 2015.
One of the most disappointing aspects of the campaign was how willingly some of the candidate quintet rapidly abandoned any genuine attempt to demonstrate their potential as authentic leaders and instead dived elbow-deep into the tried-and-tested political cesspit of muckraking and blame.
Between the state election campaign being officially launched on 1 October and voters going to the polls on Saturday, I received three spam text messages from candidates who shall remain nameless outlining not why they were the best option to represent Cook for the next four years, but why the other candidates were useless scumbags plotting our demise and hiding more skeletons in the closet than the cast of a reality television show. It was a similar story on social media, with a tsunami of negative posts dwarfing the kiddie pool wave of positive, community-focused content in a bid to win votes.
I wish I could say it was just a Cook issue, but alas, between the digital dumpster-diving approaches, printed propaganda and some of the disinformation being spewed forth at early voting booths in the lead-up to 26 October, 2024 was the state election which reeked of ego and arrogance, and candidates completely disconnected from their communities and bereft of a strategy other than pointing out the shortcomings of those running against them.
Here’s a fun fact for political aspirants, especially with the federal election due sometime in early 2025: we will readily offer up our vote for candidates who turn their back on dirty laundry and snarky criticism as campaign weapons and recognise the value of a positive, well-considered plan.
The trope of the muckraking politician has been flogged to within an inch of its life and its one we’re all sick and tired of for good reason. The voting public isn’t as dumb as it looks. We know what successive governments have done poorly and who hasn’t had out best interests at heart term after term, despite that apparently being one of the key position description requirements as an elected representative. We don’t need candidate after candidate of all political persuasions wasting good oxygen telling us this, rather than informing us what they’re going to do differently for the social and economic betterment of our communities.
Will things change? Unless there’s a major revolt by electors, no, because we’ve allowed the system to devolve to a grotesque, ineffectual mess that promotes a partisan mindset and nurtures a lucrative career for those more adept to arse kissing, mud slinging and toeing party lines then they are independent thought and a determination to put people first.
If you’re a candidate who fits into the aforementioned category and have ignored the sentiment of the electorate to focus on playing the blame game and thinking up negative social media posts as your only hope of condemning your opponents, please take defeat on the chin and slither into obscurity as you lick your wounds.
If you happen to be someone thinking about running for office down the track and find yourself amused or motivated by political negativity, please don’t even try to get your name on a ballot paper. As one of the remotest parts of the country, we have and will continue to have enough issues getting political parties to factor us into their grandiose plans without further risking our future by having to pick from a gaggle of egomaniacal candidates who prefer lobbing mud to delivering solutions.
